Terpsichore

There were plenty of empty seats at the Odeon multiplex in Huddersfield. I would say that it was about half full,. However, that is more than I have seen for previous Royal Ballet transmissions. According to Wikipedia Huddersfield had an estimated population of 146,000 in 2001 and there was no other cinema showing the broadcast in the vicinity. The National Media Museum in Bradford struggled to fill more than a few seats in the centre of the back two rows when it showed ballet. It does better for operas from New York and also gets quite a good turnout for the National Theatre. There were also lots of empty seats in Wakefield for the Bolshoi's Spartacus and Jewels. No cinema in Huddersfield showed those ballets so far as I am aware,. I should be interested to know the composition of the audience at cinemas in other parts of the country. The audience for Giselle in Huddersfield was predominately female and like me rather elderly. I did not see any children at all and very few if any persons under 50. That is somewhat surprising as there are a lot of young people at the university and they do turn out for concerts and other events. In answer to someone's question about whether anyone claps in the cinema around here, I do so silently and also cheer sotto voce, I instinctively found myself clapping Odile's fouettes during a transmission of Swan Lake but stopped as soon as I realized that my companion and neighbours were glaring at me. The absence of interaction between audience and performers is one of the big differences between a performance on camera and one on stage.

What a lovely review! I'm so glad that you were able to get to the House last night and that you have experienced such happiness. There is indeed something indeed special about Acosta and Osipova. I will also remember the performance in which I saw them dance for a very long time.

Don't worry. I think some cinemas are showing Giselle again. The Huddersfield Odeon for one on the 3 Feb.

This is my review of yesterday's live transmission of Giselle from Covent Garden that I have published elsewhere. Please note that this is a review of the transmission not of the ballet itself. I don't think you can review a ballet from 200 miles. If you are interested in what I thought of this production with almost exactly the same cast you will find my article on the performance of the 18 Jan somewhere on this forum. I think I have found out how to use HDTV to best advantage. See the production on stage and then watch the transmission in the cinema. "In an article previewing yesterday's relay of Giselle I warned that "an HDTV transmission bears about as much resemblance to the theatrical experience as hamburger does to fillet steak". The Royal Ballet's Giselle was the third transmission that I have seen this year and it was by far the best. I left the Huddersfield Odeon in a much better humour than I did in October when I watched Don Quixote. I think that is because I learned quite a lot about the ballet yesterday. The reason I learned so much was that I had already seen this production with almost the same cast on 18 Jan 2014. Seeing the same work on a big screen is a bit like watching an action replay in sport. You see the catch or try on the field but not quite how it happened. The action replay enables spectators to see how the fielder positioned himself or how the ball passed to the forward who edged over the line. In very much the same way the broadcast enabled me to appreciate some of the subtleties of the ballet such as the disappointment on Myrtha's face and the relief on Giselle's as the bell tolls 4 and Albrecht escapes. In my review of the performance of the 18 Jan 2014 I commented on Acosta's presence and Ospiova's qualities as an actor as well as her virtuosity as a dancer. Those qualities shone through yesterday too. However, I had not realized just how strikingly beautiful Ospiova is until I saw the footage of her interview and rehearsals before the broadcast. My admiration for her has soared even higher. I also paid more attention to the other dancers such as Thomas Whitehead who danced Hilarion with grace. Before the show I tweeted "Heads up for fellow Yorkshire person Thomas Whitehead who dances Hilarion in #ROHgiselle tonight. You lost the lass and died. Not fair!" To my great surprise the House twitter feed "favorited" (sic) that tweet. Now for the criticism. Although yesterday's was the best broadcast from Covent Garden so far it still fell short of the Bolshoi's. Their works are presented by Katerina Novikova, an accomplished presenter who is at home in three languages. Last night's ballet was introduced by Darcey Bussell who is a ballerina and not a presenter. While it was lovely to see her and hear her experience of dancing Giselle there were lots of missed opportunities. For instance, interviews with Sir Peter Wright and Kevin O'Hare were compressed into one question each from members of the public. One of those questions from Dave of the Dave Tries Ballet was very interesting. If only there had been time for Sir Peter to develop his answer. Instead the focus was on the story of the second act and the wicked wilis who have it in for all men. I really don't think it is necessary to tell the story because the choreography is sufficient in itself. The best way to appreciate the second act of Giselle is the same way as one enjoys Balanchine as pure abstract dance without a story. A big difference between the Royal Ballet's transmissions and the Bolshoi's is the former's use of twitter. The Royal Ballet suggests a hash-tag and invites the public to tweet where they are from and what they think of the ballet. I am not sure why they do that. You can't say much about a ballet in 140 characters especially after you have identified your cinema so the result is gush. Superlatives upon the superficial. Too much attention is given to those voces populorum. That is probably why we did not hear from the conductor or designer at all and why so little time was given to Sir Peter. Maybe a chance to explore the topic raised by Dave will arise when Sir Peter speaks to the London Ballet Circle on the 14 April. But the main reason for coming to the cinema yesterday was to see the dancing and hear the music and they were as exquisite on camera as they were on stage. I think I now know how to use HDTV to best advantage: see the same production on the stage and in the cinema. Having seen how well that worked for Giselle I will do the same for Christopher Wheeldon's Winter's Tale. As I said before, HDTV is to a live performance what hamburger is to fillet steak but yesterday's was like a very good hamburger, the sort we used to get at The Great American Disaster. If you are too young to remember the GAD read Will Self's "A burger with a side order of smugness" 27 Jan 2011 The New Statesman."

Oh I can top that. The Stockport Plaza demands £2 postage for a £15 ticket for on-line bookings. This is a benefit performance for a North-West charity for which Vargas and Glurdjidze are giving up a Sunday afternoon not to mention lots of rehearsal and other time. There is no excuse for demanding a mark-up for on-line transactions. The Internet saves businesses money. That is why so many retailers and indeed HMG and local authorities promote electronic commerce, Janet McNulty is quite right to say that the practice of charging these extras started in Manchester long before ATG took over the Palace. I used to go to the Palace frequently and I have seen some great shows there by some of the world's leading ballet companies. Now if I go to Manchester at all it is to the Bridgewater Hall or The Lowry and I buy my tickets at the box office whenever I happen to be in town. Since last February I have seen 21 ballets of which 7 were in Leeds or Bradford, 6 in London but only 4 in Manchester. As Janet McNulty noted the Leeds and Bradford theatres are run by their local authorities and they do not charge hefty extras. There is a lot of evidence that those cities are benefiting commercially as well as artistically as a result of such moderation.

It should not be forgotten how this discussion of mark-ups originated. SPD444 complained that ticket sales for Le Corsaire were slow. If the theatre is forced to discount performances by Klimentova, Muntagirov, Rojo and Acosta there must be a risk that this tour will lose money. If it does lose money it could be difficult to attract English National or indeed other first class companies in ballet and other performing arts back to Manchester. Should that happen it will have serious consequences not just for ballet in the North West but the North West itself. The quality of life in a metropolitan area is one of the factors that attracts high achievers and investment to that area. Different people have different interests but the performing arts is high on most peoples' list. Every time I dine with clients or colleagues we usually discuss what is happening in local theatres and Bridgewater Hall as well the fortunes of City and United and house prices in Halebarns. If our region ceases to attract top class performing artists it will be harder to attract and indeed retain top class talent in other fields. According to Wikipedia the county of Greater Manchester has some 2.685 million inhabitants and if one adds the communities in Cheshire, Derbyshire, Yorkshire and Lancashire which make up the commuter belt the population will be well over 3 million. That is the second largest conurbation in the country and comparable with Milan that supports La Scala and Vienna which supports the Volksoper. With a population of that size it ought to be possible for ATG to fill a theatre for a production of Le Corsaire that is widely acclaimed as outstanding. If it can't it should ask itself why. I venture to suggest that at least part of the answer is the £6.90 mark-up.

Again, very good advice Janet McNulty but if I had £35 to spare I would rather give it to Scottish or Northern Ballet so that Christopher Hampson or David Nixon could create new ballets, the London Ballet Circle so that a promising student could attend a summer school like the one in York or even the appeal by a young man in your neck of the woods who needs to raise a fabulous sum to complete his studies in Moscow. You will know better than I, but I think this is a specifically Manchester problem. The Leeds and Bradford theatres don't seem to charge these whopping extras though that may be because the Stanley & Audrey Burton Theatre is on the same site as my ballet class and the West Yorkshire Playhouse and even The Grand are only a few minutes walk away. However, that gives rise to another problem which is that I can't remember the last time English National, Birmingham Royal or Scottish Ballet had a season in Leeds. Smaller companies like Ballet Black and MurleyDance gave shows at the S & A Burton last year but Yorkshire folk do like a bit of variety like everyone else and our choice is to pay transaction or per ticket fees in Manchester or go to London. The only other time I have been forced to pay these ridiculous extras was when I went to Glasgow on 21 Dec 2013 to see Hansel and Gretel. The Theatre Royal Glasgow is also managed by ATG. A couple of glasses of dry white wine cost almost twice as much as a similar order at The Grand 5 days later. Also the Theatre Royal management circulated cast lists for the 18 and not the 21 Dec. My friend (who is a Scottish solicitor) and I had to mention bits of consumer protection law to the front of house manager before we were emailed the correct cast list the following Monday. For the benefit of those who attended the show and didn't complain or maybe didn't notice I reproduced it in my blog, Incidentally that was my first post to this forum. It seems such a long time ago though it is just over a month. I really must pipe down here.

That's good advice but difficult for many theatre goers to follow especially if they are self-employed because the cost of taking time off work, petrol, public transport into town and parking are even greater than those "transaction" and "per ticket fees". The theatre owners know that which is how they get away with it. It is true that other theatres are following the practice and it is killing the market in Manchester. I know of at least one lady who has given up the Palace altogether because of these extras. She could easily afford them because she has a high disposable income as a practising solicitor but she refuses to pay them on principle. She loves ballet as much as we do. She studied it as a child and still attends class as an adult as and when she can. She also has two children who are also learning ballet. She now relies on HDTV transmissions such as tonight's for her ballet or makes a weekend of it and goes to London or some other capital where she can combine a trip to the theatre with the museums, restaurants and department stores. That is precisely what she will be doing this February. I am not sure what the answer is. I had thought of complaining to the Markets and Competition Authority under the Competition Act 1998 but I don't know enough about the size or structure of the provincial theatre market and I don't have the time to find out. I remember that restaurants operated a similar nonsense with cover and 12.5% service charges about 10 years ago. Diners stayed away and the restaurateurs were forced to give up those supplements. Possibly Manchester theatre goers will do the same.

I am not in the least bit surprised. A lot of folk will have been deterred by the the box office's mark-up. It has added a whopping £4 transaction fee and an outrageous £2.90 per ticket fee to the basic price of the ticket which I for one regard as cheeky. Also English National are coming to Manchester during half term when many young professionals with school age children take a holiday. This is the time of the year when one can get an appointment at Kendals and a table at Rosso without the slightest difficulty. It's as predictable as the Parisian exodus to the plages in August.

Well Ms Maserati I shall certainly report on the afternoon in my blog and if there is a suitable thread I shall cut and paste the report here. There was certainly never any danger of my chasing Sibley with a programme but as your posts about your salad days are so sweet I am sure anyone would be charmed by them and some might wish to acknowledge them with a note. But I think you are very wise not to press for her autograph now. You saw Sibley when she was in her prime and there is still plenty of footage of her from that time. You don't need a scrap of paper. I am so delighted to see Sibley again after all those years. Though Fonteyn is the dancer I most admired, Sibley is the dancer I most liked.

Oh LinMM! :-) xxxx And I shall be in the same room as Sibley next week and may even bump into her though I think that is unlikely. However, if I do, I shall tell her your story and your other post about queueing all night to buy flowers to throw at the ballerinas. If she offers to sign a programme or something for you I will not discourage her. In the very unlikely event of that happening does the Lin in your user name stand for Linda? There is, of course, nothing wrong in queueing up at the stage door to speak to or at least see the performers after a show. That is probably one of the reasons why many theatres identify the stage door as such. It is just that I don't do that for all the reasons I gave the other day. But ultimately it is a matter for each individual. One aspect that nobody has discussed in this thread so far is that social media and blogging now provide new opportunities for communicating with dancers. An example occurred this very day. One of my followers on twitter re-tweeted this tweet from Steven McRae: "I am honoured to have just been named 'Young Australian of the Year' @AusHouseLondon ...Thank you! #AustraliaDay pic.twitter.com/JPVgMqOGnH" I re-tweeted McRae's tweet to my own followers and added a reply "@AusHouseLondon Many congratulations to @_stevenmcrae and also to Lucinda Dunn of the Australian Ballet." I mentioned Dunn in the same tweet because she was also honoured by her country today. My tweet came to McRae's attention because he "favorited" (sic) it. I notice that the Royal Ballet solicits and republishes tweets in its HDTV transmissions so twitter is another way of expressing one's appreciation. It has several advantages over queueing at the stage door - principally that there is no danger of getting wet.

The title to this thread begs the question: why did we not study ballet as children? In my case the answer is that my father disapproved of ballet and was very reluctant to pay for it though he paid for me to attend a very expensive independent school in London and never stinted on any of the other extras such as driving lessons. I was actually advised to take ballet lessons at one point because I was flat footed and badly coordinated but he would have none of it. I think he had two objections neither of which was unreasonable in the context of the social mores of the day: immodesty of dress; and the cynical use of ballet and to a lesser extent other arts and sports by the Soviet authorities of the day to deflect attention from an appalling political, social and economic system. As for dress he and many others at that time thought that the classical tutu revealed too much skin which was often better left concealed on aesthetic grounds. As for the men, he considered that their costume revealed far too much of their reproductive anatomy than was consistent with public decency. Now my father as a highly educated man was fully aware of the great ballet companies in democratic countries such as the UK and USA and that there was nothing inherently totalitarian about ballet but when the Bolshoi visited London the country went mad. Sales of Soviet Weekly and the Daily Worker soared and the subliminal message that was propagated was that a political system that could produce such excellence could not be all bad. So all through my school days the only way I could follow ballet vicariously. There was a wonderful exhibition of the Ballets Russes at the V & A. Much more ballet was shown on TV which my mother and I could watch as my father lumbered off to his study or volunteered to take out dog for a walk. Something he would rarely do at other times and regardless of whether the dog needed a walk or not. Yet another connection with ballet was with the Royal Ballet School students. Our school was just opposite the upper school in Barons Court and some of their students took our tube and got talking to us about their training. In its striving for excellence it seemed to have much in common with ours. When I went to university I was lucky enough to get a scholarship as well as a grant and a well paid holiday job for the British Council which enabled me to see a lot of ballet. I joined the Young Friends of Covent Garden which had a wonderful ticket voucher scheme that enabled me to get generous discounts for the amphitheatre. The House closed in August and September so I could use them only in July and the Christmas and Easter vacations but during those periods I practically lived at the theatre. I also joined the London Ballet Circle and even found a weekly ballet class at our Athletics Union. Also, Western Theatre Ballet moved to Glasgow shortly after I went up to St Andrews so I saw quite a lot of them. All this stopped when I graduated and went to Los Angeles for graduate studies. Life at an American University is very different from a British one. Everyone was very serious and intense about their work. There were no ballet classes. LA has or had far fewer theatres than London and hardly any ballet. I did spend some time in New York where I practically lived at the Lincoln Centre. I saw many of the great companies of which the Dance Theatre of Harlem was my favourite. After I came home I got stuck into a career, got married, moved back to Manchester and while I always read the dance critics, subscribed to the Friends and saw ever company that came to the Palace and still made the occasional visit to Covent Garden I never resumed classes or even saw as much ballet as I did before. It was only with the death of my late spouse in 2010 after a horrible illness that I took a "ballercise class" (a combination of baller, pilates and aerobics) and took myself off to the Lowry, Palace and Grand. The teacher of that class invited me to take her ballet class and I am not exaggerating in saying that it gave me a whole new lease of life.

Also congratulations to Lucinda Dunn for her OAM services to the performing arts through ballet. If there are any Australians who subscribe to this forum I wish you all a very happy Australia day. I have very happy memories of holidays in the Blue Mountains, Canberra, Hunter Valley, the Victoria Coast, Margaret River, Perth, the Sydney Opera House and many other places. I hope to be back soon.

I attended a breakfast meeting at Quarry Hill for Leeds professionals and businessmen in September where Mr Skipper (the CEO of Northern Ballet) said that the company had actually made money from "The Ugly Duckling". in fact he quoted the return on investment which was impressive. These activities and other innovative ways of raising money such as Bounden an app which the Dutch company The Games Oven is developing with the Dutch National Ballet can be good business.

Scottish Ballet has always done a lot of outreach work and this is the portal to their education site http://www.scottishballet.co.uk/education/introduction.html They held essay competitions for adults as well as children and other projects when developing Hanset and Gretel. They are also active in the Get Scotland Dancing project which includes a free dance class http://www.getscotlanddancing.org/ PS I remember "Ballet for All" very well, It performed in village halls and school theatres all round the country in the 1970s. We tried to get them to St Andrews for our first arts festival in February 1971 but we got Scottish Theatre Ballet instead who were more than acceptable. I remember they danced the day we changed over to decimal currency, PPS I suppose productions like "My First Ballet: Coppelia" and Three Little Pigs" which are intended for very small kids from age 3 and upwards carry on Ballet for All's mission.

I remember that play and it may well have been at The Lyric. Perhaps I saw you on stage. I also remember the Lyric because my school was on the borders of Hammersmith and West Kensington. I remember that the theatre was in a very dilapidated state at that time and was about to be demolished.

Hi Michelle_Richer It is good to see you have made a good recovery as everyone had hoped you would and that you have resumed your training programme for which I wish you well. Actually picking myself up and carrying on with the exercise is exactly what I did. I told the teacher that the only thing that was hurt was my dignity and made light of it. I am not sure she was satisfied because she asked me more than once in the course of the class whether I was sure I was OK. The truth is that I did shake myself up and and incurred some scratches, grazes and bruises which are still with me. I was actually a little too ambitious that day. I normally take a beginners' class on Thursdays but that clashed with professional commitments in London so I took the Tuesday improvers' class instead as I hate missing a class. After the improvers' class there was a short class advertised as a choreographic class but actually a slightly more advanced class than the earlier class. In that class we did jumps and turns that we had not been taught in the beginners' class or even the improvers' class. I had actually been shown how to do pose pirouettes elsewhere some time ago and thought I would be alright. We were given the option of an easy turn or a hard one and I like a fool chose the hard one to keep up with the other two students. However, I did not spot, felt giddy and lost my balance. On the way home I received a call from a member of my staff who asked me whether there was anything wrong as I did not sound quite right. I told him that I had taken a fall but was OK. That elicited the question of how I came to fall so I told him that I had just taken a ballet lesson. The reaction was as follows and you have to read it with an estuary accent: "What! You doing ballet at your age. I don't believe it. What on earth are you doing that for. Nobody pays you to take ballet lessons. What would have happened to your client if you had hurt yourself and couldn't turn up on Thursday." Now although nobody likes being carpeted there is a lot of sense in that reprimand, I am self-employed and can't afford to take time off. I do ballet for fun partly because it is a complete contrast to my day job which I Iove. Also, it is the day job that pulls in the moolah and it is the moolah which enables me to indulge my interests one of which is ballet. I have to keep my sense of priorities.

That must have been exciting for your nieces. Are they football fans? And are you? Ballet Central did a rather sweet ballet about a girl and a footballer last year. I can't get into the sport (though I have tried) and have only been to two matches in my life - and one of those was the university match in 1958. I suppose some football fans say the same about ballet. I think Gerard would have attracted some criticism in the Echo had he behaved in any other way. I quite agree with you about dancers respecting their public. After all, as I said in another context, it is we whether as theatre goers or taxpayers who keep the ballerinas in pointe shoes. Have a good weekend.

There is a photo of that wonderful gala for Ashton on the Royal Opera House's flickr stream with a date 24 July 1970 which began at 19:00 not 07:00 by the way. I was in the upper slips. Judging by the paucity of cut flowers on stage I think this must have been the first curtain call. The stage was knee deep by the end. I was in the upper slips so had a good view of at least part of the stage.

I have seen only one standing ovation at the House and that was a gala for Sir Fred Ashton the day he retired as principal choreographer. All the principals of the Royal Ballet were there: Fonteyn, Sibley, Nureyev, Dowell and of source Sir Robert Helpmann. That was a memorable performance that started at 07:00 and carried on well after the tubes stopped running. I had to wait over 40 years for another one and that was at West Yorkshire Playhouse last September after a really remarkable performance of Midsummer Night's Dream. I think the Northern Ballet supporters' club (of which Janet McNulty and I are fully paid up members) were in the theatre at the time because we clapped and cheered out little hearts out. On that occasion about half the audience got to their feet but everyone clapped or cheered like never before. The only other occasion when everybody got up was last November in the Stadsshouwburg in Amsterdam when the Junior Company of the Dutch National Ballet started their season. That was another emotional evening and the ovation was not just for the company - though they richly deserved it - but for Hans van Manen who came on to the stage to take a bow. That company is coming to London in May and there are lots of threads about them all over this website. If there are still tickets left do yourself a favour and buy one.

That's as good as it gets. I think it was Firebird for me. Or perhaps Petrushka. I also remember a wonderful Coppelia by Festival at the Coliseum. My moment came somewhat earlier in 1968 or 1969 when I went to university and had my own income. I had to wait till then because my father did not really approve of ballet although he appreciated all the other arts. My mother did like ballet and she used to take me to the occasional open air performance on Streatham Common in 1955 or 1956 when we lived briefly in London but she kept quiet about it as did I. I know that I have always loved the music and costumes and I was awestruck by dancing on point. In an article that I wrote for my blog which was inspired an enquiry from a friend in Carlisle whose daughter has just started ballet lessons I said "Ballet is the little bit of magic that remains when you discover that there is no Father Christmas and there are no fairies at the bottom of your garden." That was certainly my experience though I also discovered other wonders like science to replace the magic.

I know. How it mounts up. I'm already seeing 10 shows and am about to add Ballet West's Swan Lake and Northern's Cleopatra to the tally. Do you think our passion is turning into an obsession?

You know I think there have to be some boundaries between us and the dancers for our sakes as well as theirs. My mother often talked of the time she was taken to see Pavlova dance in Leeds. Pavlova was magical on stage. Afterwards my mother glimpsed her as she left the theatre - a tired, very ordinary looking woman who no doubt wanted nothing more than to get to her hotel. Dancers are people like everybody else and they are entitled to privacy. Yes they thrive on public adulation but we can give them that with our clapping and cheers when they take their curtain calls instead of darting off to the cloakroom or tube as soon as the curtain falls to avoid the crush. If one wants to meet dancers there are plenty of opportunities to do so where they are prepared to meet their public. Lots of theatres and companies have friends' groups which organize events where one can talk to dancers or choreographers about their work and sometimes even shake hands with them. So, too, do organizations like the London Ballet Circle which holds lectures at the Civil Circle Club that are open to the public with speakers like Tamara Rojo and Peter Wright. I'm making a special journey to London to see Elena Glurdjidze on the 10 because she is dancing in Stockport on the 16 Feb to raise funds for Reuben's Retreat. If you want to know what that's about (and it is a very good cause) you will have to Google it because I'm no longer allowed to give you the hypertext link. In my work I am consulted occasionally by sports or showbiz personalities. Usually their instructions come through agents or managers but on the rare occasions that I might meet one of them I keep proper professional detachment even if I happen to be their biggest fan which once happened when I met one of my childhood heroes as cricket is another of my passions. And that brings me back to another modern tendency that I deprecate, that of referring to ballerinas or premiers danseurs nobles whom one does not know and has no immediate prospect of meeting by their first names. We don't refer to Pavlova, Fonteyn or Nijinksy as "Anna", "Margot" or "Vaslav" and they would have hated it so why do we refer to their successors as "Carlos" or "Tamara"? If we do meet a star at a party or wedding then it is fine to call or refer to them to other guests by their first name while at the party or function but to do so afterwards is name dropping,

My birthday present to myself is a ticket to Le Corsaire on 14 Feb. Having read the press and the comments here I am looking forward to it. Will anybody else from this Forum be at the Palace on that day by any chance?

I saw the Bolshoi at the Palace that season Janet McNulty. I did not go anywhere near the stage door though. I don't really like to meet a dancer or for that matter actor, singer or other performer after a show because it somehow breaks the spell. And indeed they have lives to lead and sometimes husbands or wives and kids waiting for them at home and they are entitled to be left alone. If I recognized a performer in Waitrose I hope I would have the self-control to let him or her carry on with his or her shopping. The only time I have ever met dancers after a show was when I was a student at St Andrews. John Steer, our professor of fine arts, was closely connected to Western Theatre Ballet when he had taught at Bristol. A year after he joined us WTB came to Glasgow. One day in 1970 WTB (which I think had changed its name to Scottish Theatre Ballet by that time) visited the Whitehall Theatre in Dundee. There were not many in the audience and Professor Steer saw me. As I was leaving the theatre he collared me, asked me if I had a car (which I did) and if so whether I would take Kenn Wells, Ashley Killar and one of the women dancers to their lodgings which I did. They were exhausted poor things and apart from acknowledging my probably over gushing praise we passed the rest of the journey in silence.